Jamboree Tales - Day 4
Living What You Believe
During World War II there was a young man from Virginia
named Desmond Doss who was a member of the Seventh Day Adventist Church and
he firmly believed that it was wrong to kill another human. He wanted
to serve his country and he had no problem dying for his country but he
would not carry a gun or take a life even to save his own. When Desmond
Doss left for boot camp his wife gave him a small bible to carry with
him. As his first day in boot camp was ending he did what he always did
which was to get down on his knees and pray at his bedside. The other
recruits upon seeing this greeted him with a flurry of name-calling and
obscenities and threw boots at him in ridicule. His commanding officers
were worried that in the heat of battle American lives might be lost because
of his unwillingness to use a gun. They made Doss a medic. About nine months later they
were in the pacific and had climbed up a steep cliff onto a plateau when
the Japanese opened fire upon them. Dozens of men were killed and wounded.
The shooting was so intense that the Americans had to pull back leaving
the dead and wounded behind. Everyone that could escape over the cliff
did, except for one lone medic named Desmond Doss. Under constant enemy
fire Doss treated the wounded and made a stretcher and tied ropes to it
and one by one lowered the wounded over the side of the cliff to safety.
Doss worked throughout the afternoon and evening treating and lowering
the injured soldiers. When Doss finally came over the side of the cliff
he had single handedly saved seventy men. Men, who some months earlier
had ridiculed him and thrown boots at him as he prayed, now owed their
lives to him. Over the next several days, Desmond Doss risked his life
again and again to save lives. Some time later Doss was treating the wounded
on a beach when shrapnel struck him in his legs. He was being carried
to safety when he ordered the men carrying him to put him down and place
another man on the stretcher who was in worse condition. While Doss lay
on the ground waiting for another stretcher a sniper shot him, shattering
his arm. Rather than risk someone else's safety to help him he tied his
shattered arm to a gunstock and crawled 300 yards over rough terrain to
an aid station. After he was in a hospital he discovered that he had lost
the bible his wife had given him, somewhere on the battlefield. He sent
back word to his fellow soldiers that if they found it to please send
it to him. Upon hearing of his lost bible his entire battalion got on
their hands and knees and sifted their fingers through sand, mud and water
until one of them finally found it. They dried and cleaned it as best
they could and sent it to him. Desmond Doss spent five full years in hospitals
recovering from the injuries he received in the war. He was awarded the
Congressional Medal of Honor, the nations highest military award, for
his heroism on the battlefield. The Medal of Honor was presented to Desmond Doss by U.S President Harry Truman who said during the ceremony "I would rather have that medal than be President". A monument was later erected on
the plateau where he saved seventy men from death to further honor him. He stayed true to his
faith and never carried a gun or took a life. As of the writing of this
story Desmond Doss is still alive and remains a living legend of W.W.II.
I hope that each of you has a belief in God and that each
of you is as strong in your faith as Desmond Doss was in his. Many people
say what they believe but few live what they believe. Goodnight gentlemen!
Day 5 =>
by David L. Eby
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